Gen Gap
by Flicker's Owner
Summary: Rex is going to watch movies with his older brother to cheer him up. It only makes Caesar remembers his problem. How are they going to cope with it? Bro Fluff drabble.


**This fanfic is dedicated to awesome Generator RP LifeJournal by Pineapplesalmon and Naniteking A.K.A. Icelightning and Straya on Deviantart. It was actually based on one of their conversation about Caesar taking Rex to go out to pizza. **

**There's one point where I ask myself "If Caesar have music taste. What would it be?…and then this evil plot bunny is coming out suddenly….**

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**Disclaimer: I don't own Generator Rex and along the Salazar bro-s. I don't own Daft Punk and Tron Franchise (the 2010' version and the 80's).**

**Warning: Prepare yourself…for my crappy grammar.**

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**Important Note:**

Since this is a fanfiction I can set my own timeline. Though the GR universe is sort of set in the semi-future. I would assume that Caesar is born in between the mid and late 80's, while Rex is born between the mid and late 90's. You don't have to watch the mentioned movie "Tron" to understand this fanfic, because I'm more mentioning the comparison between Tron 2011's and the Tron 1982's version.

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"_**We were interested in the relationship between society and technology, and how the place of technology in the world had changed so much… In 80's technology and the power of the computer was very colorful, hopeful, naïve to look at.**_

_**Thirty years later, it would be a dark and not-innocent look at technology. It was in common with how we feel about it, which is this love-hate relationship with it. It can be wonderful and terrifying."**_

**Thomas Bangalter of ****Daft Punk interview about Tron: Legacy.**

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**Set before "Lions and Lambs".**

When Caesar revealed his real age to Rex, he realized that their age gap was quite long. It's not usual to have an older sibling who was at least a decade older than you. Though Holiday didn't seem surprise at this, because apparently she was 5 years older than her sister, Beverly.

This fact didn't bring serious problem. However, Rex assumed that this was one of the reasons why they couldn't bond easily. Caesar had no distinguished taste (other than the fact that he devoted his love for science). Heck, even Rex couldn't determine what kind of girls Caesar like since he's dense about Dr. Holiday's attractiveness. He's like one of those oddballs that didn't notice her, though at least he confessed that she is beautiful by calling her "Bonita" on their first encounter…well that was slightly normal.

The other example was Caesar's music preference.

Caesar was pretty much the type of those 'who-goes-with-anything'. Surprisingly, he had a large database, reserved specifically for his mp3 collection. The songs were varied: techno, house, ambient, bossa nova, remixes, and even progressive rock. The only singer that Rex knew in Caesar's musician was a legendary metal rock guitarist, John Petrucci. But even so, Caesar's collection was way raw before the guitarist formed his famous band. His older brother's only rated the calmest song, which to Rex's ear it was sort of like background music for the Discovery Channel about marine documentary program.

When skimming through Caesar's mp3 collection on his lab's database, Rex realized that most of his older brother's music was easy listening and ambient types. Those songs which he owned were mostly for filling the silence rather than for entertainment. His music choice was the perfect company to keep his mind thinking of new ideas for his job. Even Caesar was rarely listening to the songs. Those mp3 collections were more likely saved as collection or what's left since his original home was destroyed.

One day, Rex began a conversation which started with a simple question that caught his older brother's attention. The truth was…Rex didn't know why he was doing this. His purpose on digging any information was originally assigned by Dr. Holiday. It was sensible why she chose him to spy on Caesar. The older Hispanic man rarely let anyone enter his lab, but he welcomed Rex with open arms and willingly let him tinkered with his personal database. Caesar was so eager with his little brother's presence that he wasn't aware of Rex's true intentions.

Thinking back, there's no exact purpose on asking about Caesar's music taste. But Rex hoped by asking this, he probably could have determined Caesar's character.

So he blurted out his question, "What is your favorite music band?"

"_¿Qué?"_

"You heard me." Rex was currently sitting on Caesar's twistable chair. He spun and faced his older brother, "What is your favorite music band?"

To answer his little brother's question, Caesar left his work, pulled his safety goggles and looked at him closely. He needed few minutes to process that question in his brain. Then, he titled his head and his brown eyes scanning the roof of his pod lab, as if he would find his answer in doing so.

"Well, I don't exactly have any certain obsession with music that much. Why do you ask that?"

"No reason…" Rex shrugged, he expected that answer. He then swivel the chair back to the monitor which contained his older brother's mp3 collection, "I just want to…you know? Get to know you better. Since I have nothing better to do and all..."

Caesar smiled warmly though he comprehend that Rex's confession was probably insincere. So he walked to Rex, operating the computer that was in front of him, and opened a folder.

"I don't exactly have a distinguished music taste but…" The scientist scrolled and found the folder. He clicked the file and the media player started, "I used to love these guys."

Soon, Rex heard the song played from the computer. It wasn't too loud, but the small space in Caesar's Pod Lab made the song engulfed the room quickly. It's an electronic pop song…but considering Caesar's obsession with computers, there's no surprise in there.

Rex then leaned further to read the band's name. Compared with others album that Caesar had been collected, it was a folder with most songs.

"Daft Punk?"

Caesar grinned widely, almost proudly, "Yup."

"They said 'around the World' repetitively in this song…"

"They said that 144 times in the album version and about 80 times in the radio edit."

"YOU COUNT?"

"I…was curious."

Rex looked closely at the band's member. They were two DJ's wearing robot helmet complete with blinking neon lights, and one of the helmets seemed to have running texts message like billboards. Rex thought it was just a temporary accessory for the album. But when he scrolled to view the entire album's cover, they kept wearing the same helmet.

"Do they wear those helmets all the time?"

"It's called branding, _mijo_." Caesar grinned again, "Legend tells that when the pair was working on a sampler on September 9th, 1999, at exactly 9:09 AM, their studio exploded. When they came to, they were robots."

"...seriously...?"

"No not really... They're French. I sort of wish they were really robots, though. When I was younger, I used to think they came from the future or they're aliens originated from other planet."

"How old are these guys anyway?"

Caesar snorted, "They're not that old... They were born during the late 70's. Their music was pretty popular during the late 90's. I came to their concert when I was about your age. One day our family visited UK, during the night in the hotel I was sneaking out just to see them. I remember when you were still five. You asked me why I was sleepy on the next day. I could only answer; it was the best night of my life."

Rex tried to imagine the time when Caesar was a teenager. It was nearly strange to think that his nerdy obedient older brother could be rebellious. But it shouldn't be hard to fabricate the imagination: Rex tried to imagine himself with thicker hair (since their faces were so similar) wearing t-shirt with crazy signs or probably that band's logo. Then this teenager brother in Rex's imagination was jumping, yelling, cheering, and blending with all the crowds in the concert. They were dancing under the illuminating colorful stage lights. Rex shook his head as his imagination faded... That was totally different from today's Caesar.

"Why are you looking at me like that, Rex?"

"My imagination runs wildly." Rex shook his head, "By the way, I think I've seen these guys before. They looked familiar."

"Really? I shouldn't be surprised since they have so many remixes with other music artists, or they probably become DJ guest in other concerts."

"No, not in some concert, I saw them in a movie trailer. Noah showed me the movie trailer's video recently. Those guys have blue-ish glowing costume in futuristic room, but I could've sworn they were those guys. The movie is called Tron."

"Tron?" Caesar blinked, "T-R-O-N? _The _Tron? Tron, the movie about game grid and light cycles?"

Caesar's reaction surprised Rex, "Wait, Hold up… You know that movie!"

"Tron movie was one of the most legendary and earliest breakthrough visual effects of all time. It is the first movie that use special effect on computer. Computer mouse wasn't even popularized!"

"It's an old movie? Okay, that's not what's in the trailer I saw. This is confusing, are we talking about the same Tron movie here?" Rex scratches his head, "I mean how you know this movie? It hasn't been released, yet!"

"Why don't we look for the movie synopsis, first?"

"Good idea."

In minutes, Rex found the file on the internet search. He opened an article about the synopsis.

"It's called 'Tron: Legacy'. The Tron movie that I watch when I was a kid was released in 1982. Hmm… I wonder if this is a remake."

"Eighties?" Rex twitched his eyes, "That long? No wonder I never heard of it."

"That, or you forgot that we have played the first Tron movie in VHS."

"VHS?"

"VHS is abbreviation of Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette. Oh _mijo,_ come on! Videocassette isn't that old…"

The blank stare that he earned from his little brother had proved that Rex didn't know anything about it. Caesar left him for a while and then shuffled his items and took out something that appears to be a box. The package had Tron cover. The 1982 Tron that was quite primitive compared with the newest Tron which he'd seen.

"That thing…?" Rex fought his urge to laugh, "You've been keeping it?"

"It's my finest collection." Caesar shrugged, unfazed that his little brother was making fun of his antics, "You are clearly clueless about Video Tapes."

Rex dumbfounded when Caesar operated the Video Cassette player. This reaction amused the older Salazar. When Rex was a kid, he was familiar with video cassette and knew how to use it. But then again, Rex had been living in Providence and he was lavished with newest technology.

"I think we're not talking about the same movie. That's so old…compared to this." Rex showed the trailer of the newest movie.

Caesar read the synopsis, "Hm…That's interesting. The story involves a new main character who is the son of the main character in the previous movie. I assume this new movie is the sequel."

"Eh, that makes sense. I guess It's called 'Tron: Legacy' for that reason."

"You said you saw my favorite band? Now, where did you saw them? I haven't heard any new songs coming out from them since them for a while."

"In here." Rex showed one of the trailers. It was revealed that Daft Punk will be scoring music for the movie.

Rex could've sworn that he almost heard Caesar was joyously squealing.

"_Dios_…. They're making a sequel of Tron with Daft Punk! This...this is GENIUS!"

This was unusual for Rex, he rarely saw his older brother being so eager at something that's not science. Granted, the reason why Caesar was being a fanboy of some French electronic music duo and movies with flashy grid lights was possibly because of the technology. Then again Caesar's reaction was quite understandable. How many chances are the two of your favorite thing collaborating together?

Still, when Rex was looking at Caesar's happy face over music and movies was sort of making him…normal.

From that moment, it dawned to Rex. There was a purpose on getting to know Caesar. Rex recently heard from Dr. Holiday that Caesar was seemed to be...down these days. Rex thought his older was fine, doing the usual stuffs like creating things. But then, he realized that Caesar was working non-stop lately, rarely stop for anything and almost forgot eating or sleep properly. When Rex visited him, he saw his older brother's face was paler and the dark shades under his eyes were growing. Only in the times when he talked about these stuffs were making him happier...

So Rex was wondering…if he could.

"Hey, the movie is coming out soon. Will you go and see it?" Rex asked.

"Hmm? Probably. But I'd probably miss it since I can't keep track of time."

"Well…uh. If the movie comes out, I am sort of wondering, if you want to watch it with me?"

Caesar blinked his dark brown eyes, "Aren't you going to watch it with Noah?"

"Noah? Pssh, I've seen movies with him many times. But you…I never watch movies with you."

His older brother grinned, "I often watched cartoon movies with you when you were a kid."

"This is not a cartoon." Rex grumbled. He was visibly annoyed and didn't want to be treated as a kid, "I can't be ten forever."

Seeing his little brother's reaction, Caesar laughed, "Yeah, this time, for old time's sake. I'll make a note and keep my schedule free!"

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It didn't take long for the movie to be released. When Rex set the date on tomorrow, the Saturday night, Caesar prepared digital reminder on each of his entire computers. On that day, everyone was coincidentally were in good mood. There was no rampaging E.V.O. activity and White Knight didn't care when Rex asked for permission. The only person who was reluctant with that idea was…definitely Agent Six. However, he was convinced by Dr. Holiday to let the brothers enjoy their 'normal time'.

Dr. Holiday had also convinced Caesar to use rented car instead of his Pod laboratory. It wasn't easy to park that strange thing in the middle of the mall. When they left the Providence, it took two hours to reach the city, because Providence HQ's location was isolated.

Caesar was happy, as happy as Rex could tell. But it was plain obvious that he's overjoyed. Caesar was grinning more often, sometimes faintly tapping his fingers while driving their rented car to the theater. When they got there he immediately treated Rex the tickets and pop corns. Rex couldn't prevent him doing this because he didn't have enough money. Caesar on the other hand, had income from Providence. Before the movie began Caesar explained the development of 3d movie effects which to Rex's surprise 3d glasses existed longer than he thought.

The movie wasn't extraordinary. But Rex was a boy, he enjoyed the flashy movie effects, the futuristic minimalism design, hot babes and definitely the fight scene. The concept of growing machines out of thin air was also too familiar compared with his usual life. There were moments when the movie went unnecessarily slow. But compared with other rival box office movies, overall it was okay.

To Caesar, watching that movie was his nostalgia moment. It was sort of reliving his childhood memory, only this time polished and upgraded. Rather than thinking about plot story, the movie inspired the older man and gave him new ideas for new projects. But both of the Salazar brothers were agreed on the same thing: the entire background music that Daft Punk composed…was outstanding.

After the movie they discussed it during their drive back to Providence. Each times Rex bringing up the name from the movie, Caesar corrected it easily.

"The flashy motorcycles."

"It's called the Light Cycle."

"Eh... Close enough. What about the light tracks after it?"

"It used to be called the 'Jet Wall'. Although I've heard now it's called the 'Light Ribbon'. It's not as fancy as the previous name but more appropriate, Jet Wall only tilt 90 degrees, while light ribbon is more flexible."

"Death Frisbee match?"

"Disc Wars."

"That floating space ship?"

"Recognizer."

"-when that guy is dead."

"The correct word is Derezzed. The word actually abbreviation of De-resolution. In short if your existence in the grid is deceased, your resolution is decreased, de-resolution, derezzed."

Whoa, Caesar was officially a nerd for noticing such details.

"Hey..."

"Hmm...?"

"Thanks for asking me to watch the movie." He smiled warmly, "I'm really glad you ask me to watch it with you."

"_N__o problema__…_" Rex heard that Caesar fought the urge to laugh at his Spanish, "I also need someone to guide me with the stories. I've got to admit, it's pretty cool."

"There is a lot of difference between the first movie with the second. I think it's sort of describing how most of us see technology. It's amazing how people can view it differently within few decades."

"How's so?"

Caesar bit his lip before he continued, "You know, back when I was a kid, technology is used to be something that is so cool. They view it as a salvation. Today people can be skeptical towards new stuffs."

"It's probably their reaction to the nanites event."

"-but the nanites had saved you."

Rex paused for a moment, he could consider being alive is lucky, but his memories along with his childhood and normal life were the price for this. Not the mention the people who suffer after the Nanite Event.

"Well, the world is messed up."

"It could be worse..."

"How could things be worse when the nanite event destroys many lives of others?"

And again, Caesar was silent.

Few minutes later, the older Salazar talked again, "Maybe there's a way to fix things. Old stuffs can be rendered into new things. Oh by the way, after you informed me that Daft Punk is back in the game, I've check there's one of their song remixed with 'the Beatles' song, imagine that! It's like listening _Papi_'s work being rendered into mine."

"What's got that to do with our _Papi_?"

"He's a fan of the Beatles! It is sort of strange to hear his favorite hippie psychedelic songs being orderly arranged into electronic songs. Boy, if Papi hear those songs, he'll..."

Then it struck Caesar. Their Father and Mother were gone. They're not coming back. Suddenly Caesar drifted the rented car and pull over to the side of the road.

"Caesar!" Rex gasped. He wasn't prepared with the sudden drift, especially when they're in the middle of a heart-warming conversation. The other reason why he was startled is because he had never expected Caesar to react that way. Thankfully, there were no other vehicles in that road. It was nearly midnight.

The older Salazar didn't respond. He was looking straight to his front. As Rex looked closely at his brother, he realized his brown eyes misted, he wasn't exactly looking at anything. Then suddenly Caesar unbuckled his safety belt, opened the car's door and went out.

"H-hey! Bro!" Rex quickly unbuckled his own safety belt and followed his older brother.

They were on top of a hill. It was night and they could see city lights below them. It was a nice sight but Rex could tell that Caesar didn't stop here just to enjoy the view. Rex's first instinct is to ask what's going on. But then he remembered that they were talking about their parents.

"So..." Rex leaned his back to the fence and tried to start a conversation jokingly, "You've got the European driver's license, right? Are they always drifting there?"

His older brother didn't laugh, but didn't scoff either. The silence is unnerving.

"Caesar?"

There were few more minutes of silence and then Caesar answered, barely a whisper, "I thought..." He sighed and then continued, "For a moment, I thought things would go back to the way they were."

"Huh?" Rex turned his head and looked at his older brother.

"This..." Caesar said continued his sentence without looking at Rex, "This was like the old times. I'm taking you to see movies. I drove us through the night. You're skimming the radio or counting cars passing by. I'm buying you pop corn…extra butter and we watch movies together. I felt it that now..."

Rex gave a wry smile, but he knew that this wasn't the reason why Caesar feeling strange.

"When we drive home we talked about the movie and sometimes you fell asleep during our journey. Then we arrived at our house, you wake up instantly and eagerly get off the car to see _Mami_ and _Papi_. Our Dad was there waiting for us, reading newspaper or watching television. Mom was preparing our food. Then we had dinner together, hearing your stories or my opinion about the movie."

Rex's smile faded. Now he knew about Caesar's problem. It was about their parents...

"When I'm driving you back to Providence I had this strange feeling that we will go home and things will be all right." Caesar continued, "But then I realized we're not going home. _Papi_ and _Mami_ are no longer..." He couldn't continue.

Rex rubbed the back of his own head nervously. He was unable to deal with this kind of situation. Caesar wasn't breaking down, bawling, crying or anything like that; but he was undeniably hurting. It was quite unfair, Rex meant this night to have fun and make his older brother happy. But instead it reminded him of the pain which he buried deep inside.

"I'm sorry." That's the only word he could think of, "I wish I could remember them better."

Caesar shook his head, "No, it was my fault. Our parents are gone and I tried to ignore that fact. When I looked back, it only hurt worse. But, the more I tried the more the pain stayed. It dawned to me what happened. I lost everything, I lost our parents, my colleagues, the projects, all in 15 minutes. I arrived in a new land, new faces, and the only one who's alive were you."

Rex slowly tucked Caesar's sleeve.

"Hey," he tried, "Let's just..."

Go Home.

Rex fought the urge to say that. Providence was his home, but it wasn't the same thing for Caesar.

"Let's just go back, okay?" That's the best thing he could've thought of but Rex went on, "It's getting late."

His older brother looked at him, feeling surprised. Eyes widened, and then his gaze softened.

"Yeah, let's go back."

Caesar placed his hand on Rex's head and rubbed his hair gently.

"I'm…so glad you're alive. You know that, right?"

They went to the car immediately. No words were spoken when Caesar drove. In the middle of the trip, Rex felt drowsy already. Even though Caesar would smile at his behavior, Rex realized that wasn't the best time to fall asleep.

Looking at the street lights wasn't the best option. Rex needed other distraction. He used his nanites powers and turn on the radio. The music played Caesar's mp3 collection and they ended up listening to Daft Punk's song, Voyager. This reminded Rex of something.

"Hey, bro." He called his older brother and his response was neutral, which was good. So Rex continued, "Speaking of Daft Punk, have you ever seen their real face?"

"There are photos of them when they were young. Other than that, most of the time they refuse to show their real face. They're very secretive about their own identity. It is quite understandable. Some say, they're described as 'incredibly shy' which seems legit. During the pre-production of the movie, they actually met the Director at pancake house...and they're still wearing their robot suits. The Helmets are necessary; their iconic robot look is a way for fans to immerse themselves into the music and its themes. They say they dress themselves as robots so the fans didn't feel there were idols. It is purely intentional and made to focus on fan's pleasure and for them to have fun."

"Well, there's this blog I saw the other day, made by a guy. He made lots of cool imitation costumes of fictional characters. He made Daft Punk's helmet too! It's pretty neat and he took a long time to do that. It took few months each."

"Few months? Heh, I can do it in hours."

Rex raised an eyebrow. He wasn't convinced his older brother could do that fast. "I don't know…" Rex grinned with teasing tone, "Those helmets were seemed pretty hard to make."

"Try me." Caesar smirked, "I always wanted to wear Guy-Manuel's helmet. It fascinates me how the helmet lights colorful vibrant colors. Like rainbows."

"Rainbows…right." Rex twitched, "I think I'll settle for the one with running text."

"Good, you'll be wearing Thomas Bangalter's helmet."

"W-wait, I didn't say…"

"_Mijo_, I always wanted to make the best technology, and I always want my best is for you."

Rex tried to refuse that offer. But the way Caesar proposed this idea was like the joy of older brother dressing their younger sibling for Halloween. He couldn't resist that hopeful expression.

"Fine…" Rex sighed.

"I must make the blue prints first. Then I should use polyester resin casting with silver and gold plating, or using spray chrome. As for the lights I'll just have to use circuit boards LEDs. If it's hot, I'll definitely use some small fans..."

"You're seriously going to make those helmets...?" Rex twitched.

"-and oh! Those metal handplates gloves that they're always wearing! Of course, I should consider those. You saw those guys were wearing dark gloves with handplates, didn't you?"

"Whoa, you ARE seriously going to make those helmets..."

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Rex opened his eyes when he's done remembering that small moment that he was secretly cherished. It's been...few months since it happened. Back then Caesar was so happy, witty and eager to do crazy stuffs with him. Rex remembered when his older brother succeeded imitating his favorite French duo's helmets. Even with lack of sleep, he was so happy seeing Rex wearing one of the helmets.

Now, everything was changed. Caesar was too preoccupied with his job. He had been different ever since Rex was missing for the past six month.

The E.V.O teenager got up from his bed in his personal makeshift trailer. There were so many things had happened this day. They infiltrate the Providence and he had realized the revelation of the Nanite event. The fact that his brother was responsible for the Nanite Event had depressed him. But things went clearer after White Knight explained about the Meta-nanites and the possibility. Rex realized there more about Caesar than he already knew. Their previous encounter didn't reveal all of his brother's mystery, but it shone some light in his darkness of doubt.

He took his headphone and played random music. The shuffling system ended with the song from his older brother's forgotten collection, which he hadn't been listening for quite a long time.

_I turned away because I thought you were the problem. _

_Tried to forget until I hit the bottom_

Rex was amused how a random music can describe what's on his mind. With a smile, he leaned back to his bed and let the music continue.

_But when I faced you in my blank confusion. _

_I realized you weren't wrong, it was a mere illusion_

Few miles from Rex's position, Caesar was working on his project and coincidently listening to the same song.

_It really didn't make sense. Just to leave this unresolved_

_It's not hard to go the distance when you finally get involved face to face._


End file.
